REVIEW

Herman Haken Juval Portugali

A synergetic interpretation of cue-dependent prospective memory
Received: 14 September 2004 / Revised: 6 December 2004 / Accepted: 9 December 2004 / Published online: 23 February 2005
Marta Olivetti Belardinelli and Springer-Verlag 2005
Abstract In this paper, we make a preliminary attempt to
approach the phenomenon of prospective memory (PM)
from the point of view of Hakens theory of synergetics
that refers to complex, self-organizing systems, in gen-
eral, and to brain functioning and cognition, in partic-
ular. In the following, we consider one form of PM
onlythe so-called event- or cue-dependent PM. We
rst interpret cue-dependent PM in terms of synergetics
and then applythe mathematical formalism of syner-
getics.
Introduction
Generally speaking, prospective memory (PM) refers to a
remembered future. This is in contrast to retrospective
memory that refers to a remembered past (Neisser 1982).
More specically, PM studies commonly focus their
attention on the realization of delayed intentions or
plans, so that the task of PM involves the future use of
memoryone remembers to remember and then per-
forms accordingly (Sellen et al. 1997).
Examples of PM are abundant as the phenomenon is
central to the daily experience of every individual: the
plan to shop in a supermarket after work, the intention
to send a letter when seeing a mailbox, to buy owers on
ones way to a friend, to call a colleague at 3 p.m. and so
on. Examining the various cases, students of PM have
made a distinction between time-dependent and cue-
dependent PM (Brandimonte et al. 1996; Marsh and
Hicks 1998). An example of the rst is the intention to
call a friend at 3 p.m. as promised, or to take a medicine
every 4 h; an example of the latter, to buy owers when
passing a ower shop. The case of the plan to shop in the
supermarket after work is related to both time and cue/
event: returning home after work might be treated as an
event or cue, but it is also related to time.
An important aspect of PM is that during the time lag
between the moment of intention and the moment of
performance of the PM task, the person temporarily
forgets about (that is, is not aware of) the task and can
engage his or her memory in many other important
operations (Smith 2003). Then, at the proper time, place,
or event, one suddenly remembers: to shop, buy, call a
friend or take a medicine. One can say that in this
sudden event the remembered PM task is retrieved from
long-term to working memory store. Of specic rele-
vance here is the intention superiority eect (Goschke
and Kuhl 1993) that refers to the nding that retrieval
rates of the stored intentions are better than average
(Marsh et al.2002a, b).
As in other memory tasks, so in PM, one often
remembers the PM task and then performs it at the right
time or place, but quite often one might also forget
about it altogether or remember to perform the task too
late or too early with the consequence that the realiza-
tion of the planned action is not optimal (Graf and Uttl
2001). Apparently, this might be a consequence of the
fact that the transfer of a delayed intention/plan from
long-term to working memory involves complex rela-
tions between the planned PM task and the activities
executed during the delay period. These complex rela-
tions might take the form of competition when one
memory task suppresses the other and they might take
the form of cooperation when one memory activity
reinforces the other. For example, the aim of a research
H. Haken (&)
Institute for Theoretical Physics, Center of Synergetics,
Pfaenwaldring 57/4, 70550 Stuttgart, Germany
E-mail: haken@theo1.physik.uni-stuttgart.de
Tel.: +49-711-6854990
Fax: +49-711-685-4909
J. Portugali
ESLabEnvironmental Simulation Laboratory
(Porter School for Environmental Studies),
Department of Geography and the Human Environment,
Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv, 69978, Israel
E-mail: juval@post.tau.ac.il
Tel.: +972-3-6408661
Fax: +972-3-6406243
Cogn Process (2005) 6: 8797
DOI 10.1007/s10339-004-0041-z
currently under way (Mintz et al., unpublished) is to test
whether the navigation in 3D virtual environments fea-
turing dierent visual load suppresses or reinforces time-
dependent PM tasks.
Despite the centrality of PM in everyday life, the
number of studies on this phenomenon is relatively small
and until recently the progress made in the eld has been
relatively slow (Sellen et al. 1997). Recently, however,
the interest in a systematic study of PM seems to be
growing (Bradimonte et al.1996; Ellis and Kvavilashvili
2000). Many PM studies focus their attention on the
decline of PM capability with age and disease (Reese and
Cherry 2002; Einstein and McDaniel 1990; Einstein et al.
1998; Ellis and Kvavilashvili 2000; Smith et al. 2000;
Bravin et al. 2000; West et al. 2002; Vogels et al. 2002), a
few on the cognitive structure of the PM process (Marsh
et al. 2002a, b; Ellis and Kvavilashvili 2000) and on the
brain structures involved (Burgess et al. 2003, 2001; Ellis
and Kvavilashvili 2000; West et al. 2001). We were not
able to nd formal theorizations of PM. In this paper,
we make a preliminary attempt in this direction, namely
we approach PM from the point of view of Hakens
(1983, 1987) theory of synergeticsin particular from its
pattern recognition paradigm. In the following, we will
rst interpret PM in terms, of synergetics and then
suggest a formalism to one form of PM onlyto cue-
dependent PM. Before we do so, however, we need to
say a few introductory words about synergetics.
A short introduction to synergetics
Synergetics is the name of Hakens (ibid) theory of self-
organization. The notion self-organization itself is a
fundamental property of open, complex and far from
equilibrium systems. Open is used in the sense that they
exchange matter, energy and information with their
environment. Complex is used in two respects: in the
sense that their nonlinear components are intercon-
nected by a complex network of feedback and feedfor-
ward loops, and, in that the number of their parts is
large to the extent that there is no way to dene causal
relations among them. Far from equilibrium is used in the
sense that such systems are never at rest, never in
equilibrium, but rather in a continuous movement typ-
ied by oscillations, rhythms, chaos, uctuations as well
as steady states, depending on specic conditions
(control parameters). Such systems can exhibit phe-
nomena of circular causality, nonlinearity, instability,
spontaneous formation of spatial, temporal, functional
structures including fractals and chaos. In particular,
they attain their order spontaneously, i.e. by means of
self-organization. (For a concise introduction and bib-
liography, see Portugali 1999, Chaps. 3.1 and 13.1).
As the name indicates, the synergetic approach to
complex systems puts special emphasis on the interac-
tion between the many parts of the system. According to
synergetics, this interaction, which is often regulated by
the so-called control parameter, gives rise to several or-
der states that enter into competition. The latter is re-
solved when one (or a few) of the order states wins the
competition and enslaves the many parts and compo-
nents of the system to its specic movement. This win-
ning state is termed order parameter and the above
process of enslavement , the slaving principle. The
general scenario suggested by synergetics is thus a pro-
cess of circular causality by which local movements and
interactions give rise to a global systemic order and
movement that in turn determine local interactions and
so on.
The theory of synergetics was originally formulated
in physics in the domains of laser and uid dynamics
and with two types of formalisms known as the laser
paradigm and the uid dynamic paradigm. In the last
three decades, however, the theory was applied to sev-
eral other domains such as sociology, economics,
urbanism, and most intensively to the study of brain
functioning, cognition and behavior (Haken 1990, 1991,
1996; Kelso 1995). The latter application entailed two
more formalisms known as the pattern recognition par-
adigm, and the nger-movement paradigm. The para-
digm that is specically relevant to our present
discussion on cue-dependent PM is the pattern recog-
nition paradigm.
A typical pattern recognition experiment starts when
a test person (or a computer) is oered a small portion
from a whole pattern and is asked to recognize it out of a
repertoire of patterns that are stored in memory (Haken
1983). The classical example here was face recognition
(Fig. 1) but other types of patternsmaps, hand-written
letters, etc.were also experimented on. The synergetic
theory and algorithm of pattern recognition were
developed by an analogy to its former theory of pattern
formation. The logic behind this analogy is that pattern
recognition is pattern formation in the mind. According
to synergetics, the few parts of a pattern oered to the
test person enter into interaction, out of which, by
means of associative memory, an order parameter
Fig. 1 Pattern recognition of a simple scene (one faces and a
background). Top Examples of stored prototype including the
encoded family names. Bottom Examples of a recognition process
where part of a face is prescribed as initial state
88
emerges. The order parameter enslaves the rest of the
parts and recognition is established.
As can be seen, the notion of associative memory
stands at the core of the pattern recognition process.
Intuitively speaking, this notion refers to the tendency
that when one sees a pattern, say a persons face, one
wants to know the name of that person or the past cir-
cumstances under which one rst met him/her. In other
words, one wishes to associate one dimension of the
patternthe facewith its other dimensions: name, event
of meeting, place of work and the like. Associative
memory thus refers to the process by which an incom-
plete set of data yields the full set (Haken 1996, p 239).
In the various pattern recognition experiments, one
can make a distinction between simple versus complex
scenes. Figure 1 is an example of a simple scene: it is
composed of a single semantic entity or a category (a
face) and a background. A more complex scene is shown
in Fig. 2. Here, we have two faces and a background.
The theory of synergetics suggests that the recognition
of such scenes evolves by means of a sequential play
between the so-called attention parameters. The mind/
computer rst directs attention (parameter) to the rst
face, recognizes it, then to the second and so on. As will
see, attention parameters are specically important in
the execution of cue-dependent PM tasks.
Another relevant distinction is between pattern
recognition of static versus dynamic patters, that is to
say, patterns of action. An example of the rst is the
pattern recognition of the faces discussed above
(Figs. 1, 2), while of the second a moving person or
animal (Fig. 3). Patterns of action have been studied
in some detail in the context of synergetics. These
studies have shown, rstly, that patterns of action
evolve as a self-organizing system by which the coor-
dination between the large number of elements in-
volved in the process (ranging from neurons to
muscles and joints, etc.) is governed by one or a few
order parameters. Secondly, that likewise dierent
patterns of action/movement (walking, running, etc.)
are governed by dierent order parameters. Thirdly, as
a consequence, the transition between one pattern of
action to the other involves a phase transition between
one order parameter to the other. Fourthly, the pro-
cess of learning a certain pattern of action is a process
by which the large number of elements involved in the
activity are being enslaved and coordinated by one or
a few order parameters. This latter process of learning
was studied in some detail with respect to the use of a
pedalo (Fig. 4).
The above process of pattern recognition can be
and has been implemented on the synergetic computer,
which is a synergetic network model of pattern rec-
ognition (Haken 1991). The synergetic computer can
be realized by a three-layer network as described in
Fig. 3 Two patterns of action/movement dominated by two
dierent order parameters. Top Gallop. Bottom Canter
Fig. 4 Schematic drawing of a pedalo. The pedalo consists of two
steps that are eccentrically mounted on a wheel. The resulting
movement of the left and right leg is shifted by 180. The right-hand
side shows the side
Fig. 5 Diagrammatic illustration of the synergetic computer
Fig. 2 Pattern recognition of a complex scene (two faces and a
background)
89
Fig. 5. The uppermost layer contains the individual
neurons with their activities that by means of their
interaction give rise to the order parameters and their
dynamics that are described by the middle layer. The
one or few order parameters that eventually enslave
the many parts of the system govern the activity
pattern of the neurons represented by the lower layer.
In cases of patterns of action, we may identify the
uppermost layer with sensory neurons and the lower
layer with motor neurons. This synergetic computer
will be employed also in our interpretation of PM in
the remaining part of this paper.
From pattern recognition to PM
Applying the pattern recognition paradigm to the case
of prospective memory involves three new adaptive
features: the rst proposes a link between retrospective
and prospective memory. The second suggests an
analogy between the cue of PM and the small part of
a whole pattern oered to a test person in the pattern
recognition process. The third suggests an interpreta-
tion of the cue-dependent PM in terms of a compe-
tition between existing and prospective attention
parameters: both are competing for control over
working memory.
The link between retrospective and prospective
memory
In pattern recognition, the test person (or computer)
recognizes the complete meaning of a partial portion
of a pattern oered to him/her/it by means of a rep-
ertoire of patterns stored, or rather constructed, in
retrospective memory. Such learned patterns, con-
structed as they are on the basis of the persons past
experience, might refer to a specic face the test per-
son encountered in the past, to more general patterns
such as a human face, a building, a car, as well as
to patterns of action and behavior such as crossing a
busy road, shopping in a supermarket, commuting
to work and back home and so on. In the synergetic
computer, each such pattern is described by means of
an order parameter.
We suggest that the prospective memory process
starts when the person employs his/her past experience
and previously constructed similar patterns of action in
order to construct in mind a pattern of action that refers
to an imagined or virtual future. Such intended, plan-
ned, or imagined pattern of action might be making a
phone call, shopping in a supermarket, or a scenario
composed of a sequence of actions such as start com-
muting home, get o the road at a certain junction, park
the car, shop in the supermarket etc. etc. As in ordinary
pattern recognition, here too, in the synergetic computer
each such virtual pattern is described by means of an
order parameter.
The cue as a partial pattern
An ordinary process of pattern recognition starts, as
noted above, when the test person is oered part of a
pattern and is asked to recognize it out of a repertoire of
whole patterns stored in memory. The pattern recogni-
tion process is thus being triggered by the partial pattern
oered. In light of what has been said above, the object,
or event, or spatial scene that triggers a cue-dependent
PM can be treated as part of a planned pattern of action
that makes the PM task. For example, the mailbox that
one suddenly encounters when driving from home to
work is part of a pattern of action that involves, say,
parking the car, crossing the road, putting the letter in
the box, crossing back the road, getting into the car and
driving on to work. As in pattern recognition so in PM,
a small part or segment from the larger pattern entails a
recognition process that in the case of PM includes also
the execution of the planned action.
The role of attention parameters
In ordinary pattern recognition experiments, the test
person is asked to recognize an oered pattern. The
person is thus forced to direct attention to the pattern
and the recognition task. In cue-dependent PM experi-
ments, the subject is shown a partial oered pattern but
is not asked, (nor demanded or reminded) to respond to
it. In fact, the question in PM experiments is whether
and in what circumstances the subject will respond to the
cue or will forget about it. From the point of view of
synergetics, the shown pattern that functions as a cue is
a sort of attention parameter that must compete with the
attention parameter that preoccupies the persons
attention at the timespace moment of the cue.
We suggest that the above noted experiments with
pattern recognition of complex scenes give us insight
into how the PM task is implemented. As we have
seen, the recognition process of complex scenes is
sequential: the attention parameter rst draws the
Fig. 6 A complex scene with a fair competition between two order
parameters corresponding to two patterns, faces versus vase
90
mind-brain/computer to one element of the scene,
recognizes it, then the attention parameter is put on
the second element and so on. A somewhat dierent
situation occurs with respect to the ambiguous vase
faces patterns (Fig. 6). Here, there are two attention
parameters oscillating between attention to vase versus
attention to faces. The latter case can be interpreted as
a competition between two order/attention parameters:
vase versus faces. The competition between the two
attention parameters might be fair, but in many cases
it is from the start biased as in the ambivalent pattern
young/old lady of Fig. 7. Here, 80% of the male
subjects rst recognized the young lady and only later
the old one (Haken 1996).
The above biased situation is specically relevant in
PM tasks. Here, too, there is competition between two
order/attention parameters: the PM attention parameter
versus the one that dominated the subjects mind at the
spacetime moment of the cue. One can say that the
process starts when the subjects attention is occupied/
biased by a certain task and the role of the cue is to
create a stronger biasone that will direct the persons
attention to the PM task. If the bias/eect of the cue is
weak, the person will forget; if it is strong, it will enslave
the subjects mind and the task will be executed. As
noted above, Goschka and Kuhls (1993) intention
superiority eect indicates that retrieval rates of the
stored intentions are better than the average (Marsh
et al. 2002a, b).
A synergetic model of cue-dependent prospective memory
Let us rst reconsider a typical cue-dependent PM task:
we may plan to buy some medicine but do not have a
specic plan how to do that. Then, while driving
through the city, suddenly we see the word pharmacy
whereupon our prospective memory becomes active. We
stop our car, park it, go to the pharmacy and buy the
medicine. This example provides us with the main fea-
tures of our approach. First, we must prepare our ac-
tion, then we must be able to recognize a specic cue and
nally we will carry out our actions. More specically,
we suggest interpreting the PM task in terms of three
phases, namely the preparatory phase, trigger phase and
execution phase. In what follows, we will analyze them in
more detail. We will rst provide the reader with a
qualitative description of the dierent phases and then
give an explicit mathematical description. To make the
article understandable to a wider audience, we make this
mathematical description as explicit as possible, whereby
we focus our attention on simple models. It should be
stressed, however, that based on such an approach the
mathematical treatment can be pushed much further.
Indications of such developments will be given below at
the proper places. The mathematical tools and concepts
will be taken from synergetics.
Qualitative approach
Preparatory phase
(A1) In the process of cue-dependent prospective
memory, we are dealing with a twofold learning process
that comprises, rst, retrospective action patterns
learned in the past a
j
, j=1,...,n (by actual doing) and
governed by order parameters n
j
(t). Second, and spe-
cically signicant to the present issue, prospective
mental preparation of virtually learned patterns v
k
,
k=n+1,...,N governed by order parameters n
k
(t),
k=n+1,...,N (imagination of action patterns that were
not yet performed).
As many of the cues in cue-dependent PM tasks are
related to specic environments and objects in ita
specic junction or a shopping center in a certain city,
for examplethe above retrospective learned patterns
might include the cognitive map of that city or relevant
parts of it (Portugali 1996). As we shall see, the whole
process will be strongly inuenced by attention param-
eters so that we must consider the following:
(A2) setting of thresholds of attention parameters
k
l
thr, k=1,...N
We must be aware of the fact that attention param-
eters depend on our general disposition including our
hormone level, fatigue, etc.
Trigger phase
(A3) During this phase, we perform a conscious or
subconscious search for patterns p
m
, m=1,...,M that
may serve as cues p
c
l
n for the attention parameter k
l
of
the desired action a
l
. Note that there may be several
cues labelled by l for the same attention parameter
related to the desired action a
l
.
Having in mind the example given at the outset of
this section, we may look for the word pharmacy and
the desired action will be buying a specic medicine. As
we shall see below, this search is connected with the last
point of Sect. A1.
Fig. 7 A complex scene with a biased competition between two
order parameters corresponding to two patterns, young woman
versus old woman
91
Execution phase
The execution phase has two parts: in the rst part, we
perform actions that are not included in the cue-
dependent prospective memory, e.g. we are driving by a
car in the city or we are walking along a street. During
this period, one or several order parameters that govern
our ongoing present action are active. But then at a
certain instant, the cue-dependent prospective memory
becomes active and the corresponding specic action
starts. For this to happen, we require:
(A4) that the attention parameter for this specic new
action is larger than its threshold, i.e.
k
l
0 > k
thr
l
0 ; all other k
l
\k
thr
l
In this case, a specic action control parameter g
l
increases from zero and governs via an order parameter
n
l
the action a
l
by enslaving the subsystems necessary
for that action. During a transition period, the other
order parameters that have been active so far decline
and are no more active.
Note that if the above attention parameter for the
PM cue is not larger than the threshold, the PM task will
not be performed. In other words, the persons attention
will continue to be enslaved by the pattern of action
driving or walking in the street and the person will
forget about his/her PM pharmacy task.
Let us now turn to the mathematical formulation.
Mathematical formulation
In order to facilitate the reading of the mathematical
part, we refer the reader to Diagram 1, in which the
92
roman numbers indicate the individual steps, and to
Fig. 8 that illustrates each step by means of a picto-
gram.
Step I
(B1) The actions a
j
, v
k
may be steered by motor pro-
grams that are executed by a computer. According to,
the traditional concept of brain functioning, our brain
steers movements by means of a motor program in
analogy to a computer. Over the past years, however, a
paradigm shift, triggered by the Haken et al. (1985)
model, has taken place in that the steering of movements
by the behavior brain is conceived as a process of self-
organization governed by order parameters. Since in this
paper we are primarily interested in the behavior of
humans, we will stick to the latter approach in the fol-
lowing. These self-organized actions may be quite
complex and may be composed of a series of elementary
actions. For clarity, we restrict ourselves to very simple
examples where we deal with one kind of action gov-
erned by one or several order parameters. More com-
plicated actions will be visualized, at least in our
approach, by a series of individual elementary actions
where the switch from one action to the next one is
governed by so-called control parameters. One of sim-
plest and yet rather realistic order parameter equations
has the form:
dn
dt
an bn
2
cn
3
This is a dierential equation for the real order
parameter n with constant coecients a, b, c. In the case
of a periodic movement such as walking or running or
driving a pedalo, the order parameter n becomes com-
plex, i.e.
Fig. 8 Pictograms
corresponding to steps IVIII in
diagram 1
93
n n
r
in
i
where i is the imaginary unit and n
r
and n
i
are the real
and imaginary parts of n, respectively. In such a case, the
typical order parameter equation reads
dn
dt
an bn
2
cn n j j
2
where the coecients a, b, c may now be complex and in
particular
a c ix
where c is a constant and x the frequency of the overall
motion. Equations of this type were studied in detail for
driving a pedalo (see Fig. 4, above) and for walking and
running (see above). The actually observed movement is
described by angles J
j
(t) between the limbs, such as
upper and lower leg, upper and lower arm, and the
body. The temporal change of all these angles is gov-
erned by a single order parameter n or, in mathematical
parlance, the angle J
j
(t) is determined as
#
j
t f
j
nt
where f
j
is a specic function. We may even state that
speaking can be modelled the same way.
In order to give the reader an impression of the
wide range of applicability of the order parameter
concept, we just mention that order parameter equa-
tions were explicitly established and studied in detail
in the case of quadruped gaits, such as walk, trot, and
gallop of horses and other kinds of gaits, say of
camels etc (Haken 1996, Chaps. 912). In particular,
this approach allows one to study the transition be-
tween various gaits. In general, the order parameter
equations are of the form:
dn
l
dt
N
l
n
l
; g
l
F
n
l
l
t 1
n
l
, N
l
may be vectors and g
l
is a control parameter that,
as usual in synergetics, indirectly controls the movement
based on self-organization. F
n
l
l
t is a uctuating force
that is needed to initiate the action l provided that the
control parameter possesses a value larger than a critical
one.
In many cases, but not exclusively, the always non-
linear functions N
l
may be written as a low order poly-
nomial with constant coecients. Numerical values of
these coecients determine the kind of time dependence
of the order parameters, which jointly with the slaving
principal xes movements of, e.g., limbs. At a still more
microscopic level, these order parameters determine also
the action of the individual neurons, e.g., their coordi-
nated ring rates.
Step II
(B2) We now turn to the xation of the thresholds k
l
thr
for the attention parameters k
l
that will appear below as
a specic kind of control parameters in the action con-
trol parameter equations. We want to secure that the
prospective memory, with the action then caused by it,
will become active only if the cue is strong enough.
Therefore, we shall assume
k
thr
l
0 C > 0 2
and all other
k
thr
l
C
0
with C
0
> C l 6 l
0
: 3
Steps IIIV
(B3) In the next steps, we shall deal with the dynamics of
the attention parameters k
l
. We rst assume that the
attention parameters are such that the original action is
performed, e.g., walking along a street (step III). But
then a new object related to the PM is observed (step
IV). In such a case, a competition, between attention
parameters sets in (step V). To describe this competition,
we treat the attention parameters formally as order
parameters as in the case of pattern recognition. The
corresponding equations read:
dk
l
dt
K
l
Ak
2
l
B
X
j
k
2
j
!
k
l
F
k;l
t: 4
A and B are constants. F
k l
are again uctuating
forces. Equation 4 takes care of our idea that atten-
tion works like a kind of search light and may jump
from one object (outside or inside our brain) to an-
other one. The competition is mainly governed by two
eects, namely:
1. The dependence of L
l
on l whereby L
l
may be time
dependent. It may depend on interesting patterns to
be recognized, which leads to a sensitization of
overall pattern recognition, but also saturation (fati-
gue) may be taken into account by letting L
l
decay for
all l.
2. The second ingredient that especially has to take care
of the eect of the cue-dependent prospective mem-
ory must be a fast dynamics by which the preselected
l is activated and thus L
l
becomes large enough.
Equation 4 must be complemented by initial condi-
tions. In all cases, we assume that except for the new
action to be undertaken all the other attention param-
eters have a specic value at the time of the recognition
of the cue. In this case, we choose:
K
l
0 c
X
l;k
00
p
l
tp
c
k
00

2
; k
00
2 l
0
; 5
where c is a proportionality factor.
The motivation for this equation is as follows:
while driving in the city or walking in the street, we
observe patterns of all sorts all the time, patterns that
94
we distinguish by an index l. As usual in pattern
recognition, the pattern is encoded by means of a
pattern vector p
l
. However, because of our movement
including the movement of our head, this pattern
vector that we observe is time-dependent. It appears
for instance, becomes more or less complete and
vanishes again. These patterns are to be compared
with the learned or virtually learned cue pattern that
we denote by p
k
c
. These are the patterns that serve in
the sense of pattern recognition as prototype patterns.
On the other hand, they are those patterns that will
lead to the action a
l
. Jointly, with Eq. 4, the result
will be as follows. The brackets in Eq. 5 denote the
scalar product between the vectors.
There are two more alternatives to Eq. 5, namely we
further drop the sum over l and just use at time t the
actually seen pattern p
l
. Our nal alternative and prob-
ably the most convenient one is:
K
l
0 c
X
k
00
ptp
c
k
00

2
k
00
2 l
0
pt 2 p
l
6
where p(t) is the pattern actually seen at time t. The
relation 6 means:L
l
>0 if p(t) contains one of the cue
patterns and =0 otherwise. In order that L
l
wins the
competition, L
l
must be larger than all other L
l
.
Steps VIVIII
(B4) We now turn from attention to the transformation
into action. To this end ,we use the action control
parameters (as special case: movement control parame-
ters) g
l
. We now admit that they are time dependent and
obey the competition equations
dg
l
dt
k
l
k
thr
l
g
l
ag
2
l
b
X
K
g
2
K
!
g
l
F
g
l
l
t 7
a and b are constants and F
g
l
l
uctuating forces. For
what follows, we distinguish between slow and fast
dynamics of g
l
. Here, slow and fast refer to the tem-
poral changes of g
l
(t) as compared to that of the
movement of the enslaved parts (e.g., the limbs). In the
slow case, it will be sucient to use Eq. (1) that must be
supplemented by the slaving principle that now in its
leading approximation reads
#
j
t
X
l
g
l
tf
j;l
n
l
t: 8
It means that the movement coordination of the
individual parts is a sum over the individual contribu-
tions f
j,l
with weights g
l
. In higher approximations, we
must invoke a general relationship
#
j
t G
j
g
1
t; :::g
n
t; n
1
t; :::n
m
t 9
This form takes care of the fact that, for instance, 0on
nerve signals etc. For our present approach, Eq. 8 seems
sucient, however. The meaning of Eq. 7 jointly with
Eqs. 1 and 8 or Eq. 9 is as follows: Before the cue had
been recognized, a series of actions may have occurred
(e.g., driving the car in a specic street; cf. step III). Let
us call the last action l
0
. Then, g
l
0
was the winner of
Eq. 7. Now k
l
is switched to its high value (step V), and
in slow transient g
l
0
vanishes, whereas g
l
grows to its
maximal value (step VI). During this period, the
dynamics described by n
l
0
t is switched o (all others
were zero or small anyway) and that of l is switched on
according to Eq. 1 (step VII). Concomitantly, the
movement of the enslaved parts (e.g., limbs) switches
smoothly from mode l
0
to l (step VIII). Remarkably,
during all this process, the actions can be exclusively
described by the order parameters n
l
.
In the case of fast dynamics of g
l
, the situation
(probably) changes. Here, specic initial conditions of
the enslaved parts must be taken into account, which
requires a detailed study of the movements of the indi-
vidual parts based on more degrees of freedom than
those provided by the order parameters. This situation is
beyond the scope of our paper, because it would become
too specialized otherwise.
In specic situations that require a fast reaction in
typied situations (e.g., in playing tennis), the execution
of a movement must very quickly follow the observation
of a specic cue. In such a case, we may encounter a
shortcut in the sequence of steps IVVII by directly
putting g
l
k
l
and dropping Eq. 7. Generally speaking,
the sequence of steps IVVII may be denoted as sensory-
motor action.
Instantiating the model
Given the above model, one can now explore specic
event based PM phenomena. For example, empirical
studies on the cue-dependent PM have found that dif-
ferent types of cues have dierent eects on the perfor-
mance of cue-dependent PM (Marsh et al. 2000; Taylor
et al. 2004; Van Der Berg et al. 2004 and references
therein). Salient cues have been found to be more
eective than non-salient ones, specic cues entailed
better performance than categorical cues, environmen-
tally prominent cues elicit better performance than less
prominent ones and so on.
The model suggested above allows one to study such
phenomena. In order to do so, however, one should rst
nd a way to quantify salient and non-salient cues,
strong versus weak cues and so on. We suggest doing so
by making a link to our previous study the face of the
city is its information (Haken and Portugali 2003).
Commencing from a conjunction between Shannons
information theory (Shannon and Weaver 1949) and
Hakens (1988/2000) self-organization approach to
information, this study shows, rst, that dierent ele-
ments in the environment aord dierent levels of
information. Second, that the amount of information
aorded by the various elements can be quantied by
means of Shannon information bits. In light of our
95
information study, we put forward the hypothesis that
dierent types of cues aord dierent quantities of
information bits that in their turn entail corresponding
eects on performance in cue-dependent PM.
The next step is to introduce the cues aording dif-
ferent quantities of information bits to our prospective
memory model. This will immediately aect the role of
attention parameters in the various phases. First, at the
A2 preparatory phase, when we set the thresholds of
attention parameters k
l
thr, k=1,...N
. Next, in the A3 trigger
phase, when we perform a search for patterns p
m
,
m=1,...,M, that may serve as cues p
c
l
n for the attention
parameter k
l
of the desired action a
l
. Finally, at the A4
execution phase, where we make sure that the attention
parameter for the specic PM action is larger than the
thresholds set at the A2 phase, that is, k
l
>k
l
thr
, all other
k
l
<k
l
thr
.
Concluding remarks
In our paper, we have tried to cast the phenomenon of
cue-dependent prospective memory into a conceptual
form, which can furthermore be cast into a mathemati-
cal description that eventually can be implemented on
the computer. More specically, the above formalism
was developed in a way that allows a realization of the
parallel synergetic neural network specied by Haken
(1991) in Synergetic Computers and Cognition, as well as
on a serial computer (e.g., a PC) whose output mimics
the process of self-organization. In this way, it might
serve as a model of a real brain that operates by means
of self-organization (e.g., eects of control parameters)
rather than by computer programs.
In the future, we intend, rst, to relate our model
to empirical studies on the cognitive structure of the
PM process that seem to comply with our approach
(e.g., Marsh et al. 2000, 2002a, b; McDaniel and
Einstein 2000). Second, to extend the model in a way
that will take into account the spatial dimension of
cue-dependent PM (e.g. Mintz et al., unpublished)an
issue that is central to the PM phenomenon but has
not as yet received sucient treatment. Third, we in-
tend to develop a synergetic model for time-dependent
PM.
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